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Reflections of 4455: Debbie Rightmire

Wednesday, April 27, 2016 6:50 AM

Cornerstone Credit Union League is moving into its new home in Plano, effective May 1. The staff leaves with many memories from years—and in some cases, decades—of time spent in this building at 4455 LBJ Freeway. We collected some "Reflections of 4455," and here's one from Debbie Rightmire, VP asset/liability management.

Rightmire became an employee of the League in 1979, a year before the operation moved to 4455 LBJ Freeway. She remembers the anticipation of moving from the "old building on Forest Lane with the ratty carpet to the new, sleek, white monster on LBJ."

One of the neat things was that the League, TCUL Services, Members Insurance, SW Corp, and Town North Bank (the League and all the "affiliates," as they were called back then) would all be together in one building, Rightmire recalls. "Convenient for us and convenient for the credit unions."

Rightmire travels frequently as she conducts ALM training around the Cornerstone region. "I fly in and out of Love Field," she says, "and I know we're almost home when we pass over the big white building at Midway and LBJ standing tall over the others nearby. From above, it's evident that the building is a leaning rectangle. It's also on one of the highest elevations in north Dallas, which means the top of the building is a prime location for companies to rent for their antennas and relay towers."

Initially, she says, the building did not have the man trap, but the wind was so high through the "tunnel" between the buildings, it was impossible to open the doors and stay fully clothed. "Even after the second set of entry doors were added, you could still count on a gust of wind pushing back as you try to enter the building."

"At some point, NCUA decided that SW Corp and the League were too intertwined—disintermediation they called it—and SW Corp was forced to relocate," Rightmire says. "But I was excited when Southwest Corporate built their new home and was proud to purchase a brick in the patio to signify my long association with SWC and their employees. It's ironic that we will now be back together again once we relocate to the building on Parkwood. Never would I have imagined that I would someday office there. It will be bittersweet to leave 4455 after so many years."

"As a league representative in my early years, we would serve as the taxi service to transport board members to and from the airport for board meetings," she said. "A lot of credit union leaders have made the decisions that propelled our movement from this building."

Rightmire officed in various locations within the building. "On floor 9 to 11, to 10 and back to 9," she said, "and now 11. Fire drills have never been fun!"

She recently looked at pictures of the past chairmen on the wall of the board room and, because of her lengthy tenure, realized she actually knew all but four of them.

"4455 is the past," she says. "Parkwood is the future. It's exciting to move to new offices, to get to know a new group of employees a little better, and to begin a new chapter for our new league in our new location."